One example of a substrate processing apparatus may include a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. Further, as an example of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, there is known a vertical diffusion CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) apparatus.
In such a vertical diffusion CVD apparatus, a process may be performed by heating a substrate such as a semiconductor, a glass or the like. For example, the substrate is loaded in a vertical-type reaction furnace and then reaction gas is introduced into the reaction furnace. Subsequent to this, the reaction furnace is heated so that a thin film is grown in vapor-phase on the surface of the substrate. In this type of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, there is a need to cool a heating part (used as a heating equipment) and discharge heat generated therefrom to the exterior of the apparatus. For this purpose, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-217335 discloses an arrangement in which a heating means includes an external heat insulator defining a space between itself and a heat generator, a cooling gas introduction duct surrounding the bottom portion of the heat generator that is arranged in the space and at the bottom of the external heat insulator, to thereby introduce a cooling gas from the cooling gas introduction duct into the space.
However, in the substrate processing apparatus with the above arrangement, a large amount of heat dissipation may be generated from the rear side of the heat generator used as the heating equipment. Especially, the lower portion of the heat generator is subject to a large amount of heat dissipated from a furnace opening, which further increases a load required for dissipating the heat from the heating equipment. This shortens the lifespan of the heating equipment. In addition, the temperature in the furnace is required to be quickly lowered to improve throughput of the substrate processing apparatus.